The Demise of Buy & Hold

Written by Ulli G. Niemann


Continued from page 1

Buy & Hold may turn out to be a profitable approach if you intend to hold forever. But we don't live forever, and most people are going to want to sell their investments at some point before forever hits. It's small comfort to know that if you hold your investments for another 20 years, they will make money-especially if you're retired and want to take a cruise next month.

3. Stayingrepparttar Course.

It takes a strong stomach to hang on to an investment when you see it disappearing before your very eyes. Or even when it's up one day and downrepparttar 112657 next. (Like these days, for example.) And once you decide that having to wait for three decades before your investment gets back to square one is not such a great deal, what happens to your Buy & Hold strategy then? It's outrepparttar 112658 window and all you're holding isrepparttar 112659 bag. The much emptier bag.

So what's an investor to do, especially an investor who's really not a professional? For one thing, find a reliable method of gaining information. One that I like is a trend analysis approach that objectifies market behavior. This type of approach is more kinetic in that it doesn't rely on past performance-it relies on past and present performance to indicate a "trend" toward future performance. While that's not infallible in any sense ofrepparttar 112660 word, it is a broader range of information than most guides.

Using one of those as a foundation for your strategy, determine a buy point and, most importantly, a sell point for any investment you make. Get comfortable with taking small losses before they turn into big disasters.

There is always risk in investing. However there are ways to minimize risk so you become an investor, not merely a gambler with high hopes for a Buy & Hold approach that many people have now found to have failed them.

Ulli Niemann is an investment advisor and has been writing about objective, methodical approaches to investing for over 10 years. He eluded the bear market of 2000 and has helped hundreds of people make better investment decisions. To find out more about his approach and his FREE Newsletter, please visit: http://www.successful-investment.com


Your worst enemy to successful investing - the media

Written by Ulli G. Niemann


Continued from page 1

The downside of all of this forrepparttar funds is that sometimes a fund touted asrepparttar 112656 hot one to be in attracts so much investment attention (i.e., money) that it grows beyond its original intention. At that point, it loses its direction andrepparttar 112657 very thing that made it strong is sacrificed. And guess what happens torepparttar 112658 performance?

So, inrepparttar 112659 midst of allrepparttar 112660 hawking and hype for this fund or that, what's an investor to do to make intelligent choices?

For myself and my clients I use a trend tracking methodology, which identifies long-term trends in various markets. I research funds for stability and reliability as well as current performance. Then, when our trend indicator signals a Buy, we select our mutual funds based on momentum figures for various time periods to arrive atrepparttar 112661 most promising fund(s) to use for this cycle.

This gives us a head start and sometimes, weeks after we've bought a fund, I see it written up in financial papers as being one ofrepparttar 112662 best performers.

Does this approach always put us inrepparttar 112663 number one fund? Maybe not. But we are almost always in funds that are doing very, very well. And do we get in atrepparttar 112664 bottom and out atrepparttar 112665 very top? Again, maybe not.

However, I can tell you that, using this methodology, my clients and I followedrepparttar 112666 sell signal we got in October, 2000, and were safely invested in solid money markets whenrepparttar 112667 stock market crashed and burned.

Is this approach for you? It depends on how much adrenaline rush you like when you watch your investments. Personally, I fulfill my thrill quotient with other things in life and enjoy sleeping at night when it comes to my investments.

Ulli Niemann is an investment advisor and has been writing about objective, methodical approaches to investing for over 10 years. He eluded the bear market of 2000 and has helped hundreds of people make better investment decisions. To find out more about his approach and his FREE Newsletter, please visit: http://www.successful-investment.com


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